Sparks of the Tempest
by Fortitude
Summary: Sam and Dean are loyal to their hunter friends, but that doesn't mean the feelings are mutual. When one such hunter is confronted with a being beyond what she can handle herself, she has to enlist the Winchesters despite her feelings of contempt.
1. Darkness is Spreading

Chapter 1

Left at this intersection. They had been driving for ages down the dark desolate road since leaving Kremlin. A right at the next. Suddenly an aged house became visible in the Impalas high beams. The house itself gave no light of its own.

The Car rolled into the driveway cautiously. Rising out of the Impala, the boys approached the house. Dean was the first to the door, and rapped the brass door knocker. A beat. Followed by the door swinging open violently revealing a girl in her pajamas, holding a shotgun to their faces.

"Whoa, Ky. We come in peace." Dean said as he ducked away from the gun.

"Explain that then." She motioned toward the weighted lump in his jacket. "What business do you have here?"

"A precaution," Sam chimed in, "We were doing a job in Kremlin. Though we'd stop by and see you guys."

"Unlikely," she said under her breath. There was something else; Kylie could tell that just by looking at them. Who they were was another story entirely. She had been standing there the entire time trying to figure that out. They seemed somewhat familiar and it was obvious that the two knew her, possibly her family…

"Dean?...Sam?" Kylie said aloud to test her theory.

"Bout time. I was starting to think we'd be out here all night," Dean said, confirming her suspicion.

Kylie rolled her eyes and lowered her shotgun, relaxing slightly, "And what makes you think your coming in?"

"We were kinda hopin'to stay for the night."

She looked from Sam to Dean and massaged her temples lightly." I guess."

Kylie ushered the boys in and closed the door behind them.

"So how's Jack doing? On a job?"

"Dead," She said solemnly and left it at that. Before going up the stairs, Kylie mumbled, " Well, I'm going to bed. The guest rooms are upstairs and to the right."

"What's with her?" Dean asked his brother once Kylie was out of earshot. Sam shrugged. It had been a decade since he had seen the hunter, so it was to hard for him to tell. The only possible explanation that Sam could come up with was that it was late and suggested that they go to bed as well. Dean wasn't convinced but agreed with Sam and left the conversation for another time. Sam turned to go up the stairs, and Dean started to follow but in the corner of his eye noticed that the salt line in front of the door had been messed up in the commotion. After a quick fix, Dean resumed following his brother up the stairs.

~*~*~*~

Kylie woke up early the next day to fix breakfast. Her hostess instincts were in overdrive as people rarely came by nowadays. No sooner had Kylie laid bacon in the fryer, did Sam trudge into the kitchen, half asleep and apparently hungry.

"Good morning," Kylie greeted Sam, "Dean still out?"

"Yeah, you'd think he'd never seen a bed before."

Kylie snickered in amusement. Sam took a seat at the table, and took a sudden interest in the tablecloth. He found her drastic change in countenance from the night before was odd, but dismissed it as the result of a good night's sleep. It wasn't before long that the klink of china snapped Sam from his reverie.

After seeing that Sam was content, Kylie perched on a clear spot on the counter and started on her own meal. The two ate in silence.

"I was wrapped pretty tight last night," Kylie began apologetically, "It's anniversary of my dad's death, tomorrow. It's kept me up at night for weeks now. Then you two showed up, as if I wasn't stressed out enough."

"Sorry about that. We got a lead about a demon in the area and thought we'd check to see if Jack was already on the case but…" He trailed off, seeing that is was ill-advised to continue to drag out such a sore subject.

"Well, I can help just as well as he could," Kylie said with a sigh. As she jumped off the counter, the clock caught her eye telling her that it was well past due for her to leave. In a sudden panic, Kylie attempted to straighten up her mess, but quickly gave up. That would have to be done later. "But not now. There's food on the counter for Dean when he wakes up. Your welcome to anything you may need. Am I forgetting anything? Oh yeah, lock up when you guys leave."

Kylie scooped up a bag near the doorway and left Sam with a wave. Minutes later, Dean made an appearance, apparently waken by the slam of the door as Kylie had gone.

"Where'd she go?" Dean asked.

"Dunno, she didn't say. But she left breakfast." Sam said motioning toward the counter.

Dean's eyes lit up at the sight of the food. After shoveling half his portion down his throat began, "So Ky seem any different today?"

"She was in much better mood, but I don't think it's significant. Apparently she hadn't had much sleep lately " Sam answered.

"Well you know what her mom told me. I say we check out some of her friends. See if they've noticed anything strange or whatever. If not then hey we got free room and board out of the deal." Dean said as he downed the rest of his meal.

Sam rolled his eyes at Deans antics and asked, "So where do we start?"

"I'm glad you asked." Dean proudly smiled ear to ear as he revealed a small address book.

"You realize she'll kill you, right?"

"We can deal with later."


	2. The King and the Queen are Gone

Chapter 2

The King and the Queen are Gone

Sam and Dean sat back in the Impala. They'd had been through nearly all of Kylie's address book, and still nothing. The only thing they had gathered was that Kylie was not exactly the most liked member of the community. There had been one man who's son was friends with hers, but he didn't seem to comfortable talking about her very much and only really said that she'd been seen even less as of late. From their brief meeting he seemed like the type of guy who needed to know everything about everyone in the town, and Kylie lived a good distance outside, the mystery was probably just something that he couldn't tolerate. The brothers gave a collective sigh, driving down the road to the last address on the list, not very hopeful of any kind of epiphany.

*~*~*~*~*

"Welcome, How can I help you?" Kylie said reflexively as she turned around from straightening out the shelves. "Lucas? What's up? I don't get off of work for a couple of hours." Kylie said, looking around the room to make sure her boss, Cassandra, was still in the back of the clinic.

"Some guys, apparently from Child Protective Services or something have been going around town and asking about you." Lucas said.

Kylie stared at Lucas confused, unsure of how to decipher the news that he had just told her. Her dad had died a year ago but most kept their mouths shut about it. They couldn't have decided to come out now. Suddenly, something clicked in Kylie's brain. "You've got to be kidding me. Well at least you won't have to worry too much Lucky, I think I know who they are, and they're definitely not any officers."

"I guess that's a relief, but do you know them, then?" Lucas asked.

"Kinda." Kylie strained to find the appropriate words. "They're kind of family friends. I'll deal with them later, though I might have they county police after me, after that."

Lucas gave a little laugh. "Well if you need some help, I'm not doing anything for the rest of the day so just give me a call."

"No I should be fine, though if you want to come over for dinner. If I haven't run them out of town by then you'll get to meet them."

"Just as long as your cooking this time. Last time was quite the disaster." Lucas said with a sneer.

Kylie gave a laugh and rolled her eyes. "He we managed to put out the fire and there wasn't that much damage. Or at least nothing that couldn't be fixed. Anyway, I guess you can come over around 6ish, the food should be almost done by then. And you should probably leave, Cassandra's going to kill me for slacking off."

"I doubt she cares that much, it's not as if business is booming, but I really should be going. I'll see you tonight" Lucas said and gave Kylie a peck on the lips before leaving the store. Kylie gave a wave and went back to the work that she'd been doing before Lucas had interrupted her.

With the shelves restocked and hardly any customers to be seen, Kylie took a seat in the back room, and rested her eyes for a few moments. She really hadn't gotten that much sleep last night, more than normal, but that wasn't saying much. As she edged toward unconsciousness, the door opened, setting off the bell and startling Kylie from her sleep. Instinctively she got up, ready to greet the customer.

To her misfortune, it was instead the two she wanted to see the least at this very moment. "I'm surprised you two had the balls to show your faces to me again." Kylie gave an angry scoff. "Showing up unannounced is one thing, but going around asking about my personal life without good reason. What exactly do you think your doing? Now the whole town probably thinks that child protective services are after me."

"We're actually really sorry about that. We though that given your current situation, it would be the easiest way to get information. It seemed like a soar subject, we thought it would've been easier just to ask someone else." Sam said apologetically.

"I may not be the most approachable person but asking would have been better than you both wondering about town making people think worse of me. It's not my favorite subject but if it's that important I have posttraumatic stress disorder, or at least that's what we think. But I guess that's not exactly rare for our line of work. That's pretty much why I am right now." Kylie confided awkwardly. "Now, I think I deserve to know why you are really here, and don't try to give me any of that bull shit about working a job in Kremlin. The only lead within a hundred mile radius, that I have seen, is in Enid."

"Hn, that would explain that. But it's probably better if we talk about stuff of this nature somewhere else." Dean said.

"After dinner, then. I'm having company over but as soon as he leaves, you better give me a really good reason." Kylie warned. "If you want food, I guess I'm obligated since your staying at the house for now."

"Food would awesome." Dean said immediately.

Kylie rolled her eyes, "Fine, just come some time before 6 so I can tuck you guys somewhere before he comes over."

"What, you having your boyfriend over or something?" Dean said sarcastically.

Kylie shot him a dirty look. "Six" she said, before ushering them out of the building.

*~*~*~*

"I'm leaving Cas, see you Monday." Kylie shouted to her boss as she grabbed her things and started out the door.

The hunt was simple really. Nothing more than a simple haunting it would seem. She could easily finish it up quickly and get home in time to make dinner. Taking the train, Kylie arrived in Enid fairly quickly and scouted out the location that she had been given by her informants. The building seemed fairly well kept from the outside, although it was very unlikely that anyone had habited it for some time.

Kylie entered the building cautiously and readied her gun. The structure had some history that would account for a haunting, but she was mostly going by reports that others had made recently about noises, shadows and the like but whenever anyone checked there wasn't even signs of someone having been there. It had been a while since her last case which was the only reason she bothered with something as obscure as this one seemed to be.

A set of noises emerged from a room ahead of her. They seemed awful human though, maybe too human. The noises a poltergeist were fairly discernible. Fearing that it might in fact be human, Kylie slipped the gun in the pocket of her jacket, hand gripped firmly on it's handle, and revealed herself to it.

The humanoid figure revealed itself, it's body contorted as if hiding.

"Hello." Kylie greeted the thing cautiously.

A wicked smile emerged from it's lips, followed by a menacing cackle. "Ms. Harrison..." It bent itself from it's previous position, standing upright and staring at Kylie. Kylie took a step back away from it, her hand in a death grip around her gun.

"Who are you?" she shouted in it's direction. In her experience anyone that knew her name without knowing her, was never something good.

It laughed a second time, only this time, he took a few steps in her direction, stalking her as if she were his prey. "I am merely a messenger, my superior has great interested in you. He will be coming shortly. You may have heard of him, you may of not, but he has a great history with your family and it has come time for him to complete his ultimate plans."

Kylie looked at him quizzically. "What the hell are you talking about? What are you?"

"I was informed that you might not understand this message, but it's not quite that important, you will know soon enough. As for what I am, I am not the simple spirit you believe to be haunting this building. No I am demon but I have no intention of residing here any longer, so that gun won't be necessary. For your own reference there is no spirit here, we determined that it was the easiest way to draw you out alone. Now I am gone." He said before spewing out a dark smoke that filled the room, and vanished out the window.

Kylie stood stunned for a moment. That had probably been one of the more odd, encounters with a supernatural being that she had experienced. She had assumed that things superior was a demon as well, but why bother sending a messenger as a warning. Nothing seemed to make sense. Kylie finally snapped out of her reverie, and cursed herself for wasting so much time. It wouldn't be much longer before Lucas was to show up and she wasn't even home. Gathering her things, Kylie left Enid, still pondering the demons words on the train and subsequent drive home. The part about this demon having a history with her family bothered her the most. She hoped more than anything that this didn't have anything to do with what the Winchesters were wanting to tell her, that only made things that much worse.


	3. No Turning Back

Chapter 3

No Turning Back

No one was home when she arrived. Kylie gave a sigh of relief, people were the last thing she wanted to deal with a this particular moment. Putting thoughts of recent events aside, she shifted her focus to dinner. She had not gotten the chance to go out and get groceries, but it would not be the first time she had prepared a meal with whatever was lying around the house. After raiding the cabinets, Kylie readied the ingredients, praying that it would come out tasting decent. About the time she put her creation in the oven, a knock came from the front door.

Putting down what she was doing Kylie crept around to look out the corner of the window. Taking a deep breath, Kylie opened the door and greeted the two standing on her doorstep.

"So...I guess you should come in, something tells me we have a lot of ground to cover." Kylie said, motioning for them to follow her to the living room. Sam and Dean took a seat on the sofa across from Kylie. "Can I get you some coffee or somethin'?"

"No thanks." Sam declined politely.

"Okay I'll bite. What's up? Considering how you've been acting since we got here I kinda expected you to chew us out again as soon as we set foot on your porch." Dean said.

"I thought that I explained that to you, all your doing now is proving that it was well deserved." Kylie retorted. "Now back to your explanation, or you can leave now. It saves me the time."

Sam exchanged a look with Dean and then got down to buisiness, "You remember that summer, our Dad was on a hunt in the area with Jack and we kinda stayed here and watched you?" Sam said, beginning his explanation.

_A younger Kylie ran down the stairs wearing a leather that fitted her much more like a dress._

_"You come back here, now," Dean ordered from behind. Kylie didn't listen, running further away, all the while in fits of giggles. She stopped suddenly in front of the basement door, sticking her tongue out a Dean before locking herself in._

_"No way. You left it all by itself, it's mine now." Kylie shouted._

_Dean gave an angry grunt, about to give up, when Sam came downstairs. "What's going on?"_

_"Nice hair," Dean commented on Sam's new pigtails._

_"She wanted to play." Sam said with a sigh, "What's Ky up to now?"_

_"She stole my jacket and now she's gone and locked herself in the basement. It's probably not safe down there." Dean said pointing in the direction of the door._

_"Should we tell her mom?" _

_"We told them we'd watch over her and that's what we'll do. Besides Olivia seemed worse today, I don't think she needs anything else to worry about." Dean said. "Kylie you come back out or I'm gonna bust down this door."_

_"I'd like to see you try." Kylie yelled from behind the door, backing up a safe distance in case he acted on his word. _

_"Great idea, Dean." Sam said sarcastically at his brothers failure. _

_Dean just rolled his eyes, "Fine, I'll go see if Olivia knows how to get her out. You stay here. Just make sure she doesn't hurt herself." He said with a sigh before retreating up the stairs to the Master Bedroom. _

_"Sam? Did he leave?" Kylie asked after a bit, startling Sam._

_"Um, yeah, He went to go tell your mom. I think you really made him mad." Sam said._

_"Oh...I really didn't mean to." Kylie said guiltily, slowly opening the door, "I was just kidding about it being mine. I was gonna give it back, promise." _

_"I'm sure he knows that, it just means a lot to him." Sam said, comforting her with a smile. "I'm sure he'll forgive you though. Here, I'll go and tell him that your out, no harm done." _

_Sam run up to intercept Dean. "Hey Dean she came out." Sam said, entering the room. _

_Olivia gave a weak laugh as she struggled to get sit up, "I figure she would. I hope she's not giving you too much trouble, She seems to have been unusually mischievous."_

_"Heh, I guess we're special." Dean said ironically. _

"_Indeed, you'd be surprised how rare it really is. She usually hides in her room and tends to herself. It may be because you closer to her age." Olivia said, partially lost in thought. "If you don't mind, I do have something to ask of you two? I can't share the whole truth so this will sound strange but Kylie will come to a point in her life will she will be confronted with a great hardship. I don't think she will be prepared to overcome it by herself. As I can't promise that I or her father will be there, It would comfort me knowing that you two may look after her at this time."_

_Sam and Dean, looked at her not sure how to respond to something like that. It seemed out of the blue and, while their Dad seemed to have been friends with Olivia and Jack for some time, very strange for a near stranger to asked of them. _

_"Dean you can have your jacket back." Kylie came up yelling, after getting bored by herself downstairs. She stopped in the doorway, confused by the tense atmosphere of the room, "What's the matter?"_

"It was all incredibly vague, we thought she was just being concerned," Sam explained, "But seeing how things rarely work out that way, we though it might be best to try and see if there was anything else going on. That's why we were using the methods we did, hoping that we could check things out without alarming you."

"You failed, by the way." Kylie interjected, more as a joke than actual ridicule.

Sam gave a half-smile, "Yeah, I guess we didn't choose the best way of going about it afterall. But it felt kinda obligated to at least try."

"I guess it's okay. I mean I can see where you might be concerned. Who knows she may have been going to tell me about whatever all this is able later." Kylie said staring at the floor, "Um, if you excuse me for a minute I'm gonna go check on dinner. Hopefully it hasn't burnt."

"Sure." Sam said , almost as an afterthought.

After making sure the food had not caught fire, Kylie sat at the table alone. Talking about family was rarely an easy task for Kylie and she had to take deep breaths to prevent her from a breakdown. Being confused out of her mind was not helping her mental state either.

In the meantime, another knock on the door occurred the front door. This time she new it was Lucas. Taking one last therapeutic breath, Kylie trudged back into the living room and opened the door. What she had not expected was the bird droppings that were currently matted into his blond hair.

"Catch a bird in the middle of target practice?" Kylie said not even attempting to hide her giggles.

"It would seem." Lucas said accompanied by defeated sigh.

"You know where the bathroom is." Kylie finally managed to regain control, "Dinner will be done soon." Lucas nodded, retreating to the bathroom. Kylie joined the Winchesters, still enjoying Lucas' misfortune, "Are you guys joining us for dinner?"

"'What about your little date? Wouldn't want to kill the mood." Dean teased.

Kylie gave a short laugh and shrugged, "It's been a long day and I'm pretty sure Lucas will understand. I only made meatball subs anyway. Not exactly the romantic meal I had planned."

"I guess we will then. Can't say I can just turn down food anyway."

Kylie rolled her eyes and returned the kitchen. Retrieving the food from the oven, she sat it down on the counter to cool. She then methodically set the table, making sure that everything was as close to perfect as she could get before calling for them to come in. The Winchesters filed in first, briefly followed by Lucas who was still toweling off his head from is impromptu hair wash.

"I think I managed to get it all out. I dunno what was up with those birds. It's like they did it on purpose." Lucas said.

"Paranoid much?" Kylie teased, preparing a plates of food for the three men, "Here's your dinner, Lucky."

"Thanks Ky. It looks amazing." He said sweetly taking his plate and settling himself at the table.

"It's not much but I guess it'll do, I had better plans but I kinda got sidetracked. I'll have to make up for it next time." Kylie apologized.

"Your ridiculous ," Lucas scoffed, shaking his head, "It's wonderful, really. I was surprised that these guys were still here though. Could of sworn you had a vendetta against them. But I guess it's good for you to have others around. Sometimes I'm afraid that Cassandra and I are the only people you every talk to."

"That's not true," Kylie petitioned meekly. "I talk to other people...Like hunters. I talk to them all the time."

Sam and Dean looked at each other at the mentioning of hunters, and then turned to Kylie. In their experience it was always better to hide the truth when it came to what they did, and they were sure that Kylie's parents had taught her the same.

"I guess that's true. But it's still a little concerning." Lucas said, and then turned to the other two men who had been fairly quiet, "So are you guys hunters too?"

"You could say that," Dean said cautiously, "So what has Kylie told you about what we do exactly?"

"Just that you guys hunt ghosts, like -what's that groups name- the Hellhounds or something like that. I honestly thought she was kidding at first but it all seems to pretty serious."

"You have no idea," Dean said not sure whether to laugh or be completely disgusted by the comparison that Kylie used to fuel her half-lie.

"So Lucas, you almost done," Kylie said, noticing the confused expression on Lucas' face, preventing this conversation from continuing further. "We should really go and get some fresh air, you know, aids digestion. You two can help yourself to whatever's left."

"Um, Sure," Lucas said as Kylie dragged him out of the house and on the porch away, hopefully helping him forget that awkward little conversation that had just taken place.


End file.
